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"None whatsoever!!!"

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"Seemingly unstoppable"

"Dirty and unhygienic"

My review on, umm, houseflies...

I can't think of many things that disgust me more than houseflies, I'm absolutely hysterically amused that there's a category for them here on Dooyoo - so why not write about them (in the absence of products to write about in less than 500 words...).

We had loads of houseflies this summer, the heat coupled with the fact we acquired a puppy in need of house training meant the house was a magnet for them - in the end I bought a magnetic screen thingy from Asda in a bid to keep them out but despite my best efforts they still got in.

Always cover your food in the summer, don't leave anything out that a fly can land on - and that includes the sugar bowl. Flies love to eat, the problem being that they'll happily munch a bit of dog poo and then buzz over to your half eaten sandwich and regurgitate a bit of the poo onto that so they can scoff some crumbs of bread too. They also have sticky feet, a fact I learned yesterday at the museum with the kids, so even if they're not particularly hungry when they arrive on your sandwich they'll still be treading in molecules of poo. Nice, eh?

There are quite a few different types of housefly, we tend to get the smaller box flies in the living room - you know these as they're the fly that buzzes around near the ceiling in square shapes without flying off all over the room, those ones are particularly easy to treat with fly spray as they carry on flying in their squares even while choking to death...

Bluebottles are both foul and stupid - foul because they like dead things and will have probably been on a dead bird or something before coming into your house, stupid because they can fly in through the smallest window opening but can't find the wide-open back door even when it knows you're going to spray it.

So houseflies. Not sure of their purpose and potentially the most irritating living organism on the planet.

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Great pet!!

These little domesticated diptera are great if you are looking for an easy, low maintenance pet to keep! They live pretty much everywhere people do, so they are easy to catch and you can usually get them for free! They only live for a couple months, so they are not a long term commitment, and they are perfectly happy surviving on table scraps. They also have freaking amazing, sponge like mouth parts! And they only have two wings! Unusual for flying insects. Actually, the order diptera is considered to be the most highly evolved of all the insect orders. Plus wild ones do an excellent job cleaning up tons of the worlds trash.

Of course, they do have some negative aspects. They can be irritating, their larva can be, well, disgusting, and even the adults enjoy eating rotten meat. Their positives easily make up for the negatives though! These insects are perfectly evolved to live with people! Just like dogs! A perfect pet for sure!!

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Kill them!

I am not sure I would class a housefly as a pet and why they are really one here to be honest but I hate them so much and have wrote that much recently I thought I would share my hate of flies!

Who does not hate flies! They buzz around in your face, land on your food and are so annoying! Flies are one of the few living things I will happily kill along with gnats and mosquitoes!

I think the main problem with flies is that they land on poo and then come up to you and try and have your food. No thanks! So flies are very unhygienic so I don`t like them flying around, buzzing annoyingly in my face! They always seem to find you when you are having dinner in the garden and along with wasps make you want to eat outside. You can buy nets to protect your food and even devices to fry little flies! I will have to get one! I have even seen tennis racket fly fryers so you can play tennis with a dead fly - I might not do that though! However one of the best methods is probably just using a newspaper and take aim and hope you hit the little bugger! They also apparently regurgitate food - lovely!

I think flies are just an annoying pest which land on poo - so I don`t particularly like them! If there is really a God and every creature has a purpose - name me one good thing a fly does!

If there were 0 stars I think the housefly would get that but sadly you can`t on Dooyoo!

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An unfortunate pest that we have to share our homes with

I can't believe there's a category for house flies, but as I seem to be swatting one of these ugly things away every 5 minutes lately, I thought I'd vent my annoyance of them!

House flies are the most common of the pesky things that fly around your home, especially in the warmer months. In fact, I don't think I ever notice any in winter. Annoying and dirty, these flies are on my list of pet hates.

House flies are under 1cm long, and I believe tend to have red eyes, are grey in colour with a yellowish underside, and are somewhat hairy. Lovely. Needless to say, they wont be winning any beauty contests.

They tend to spend the majority of their time flying around, settling occasionally but not long enough for you to swat them unless you're quick and accurate, and generally like to make their presence known. Smells and remnants of food and drink attract them, which is why if there's food that's out in the kitchen during the summer I cover it over. Buying a net designed to cover plates is a good idea if you want to keep food fly-free. When they're not buzzing and flying, they seem to groom themselves, though this can't be to make them look any prettier because putting a diamond on their backs wouldn't make these ugly critters attractive in any sense of the word.

When I think of house flies, I think of germ-ridden pests, annoying buzzing and their remarkable tendency to get on your nerves regardless of how many times you try to swat them away! Because they only ingest liquid foods, they spit out saliva onto solid foods to predigest it and hoover it back in. If that's not bad enough, they conjure back up partially digested substances and then hoover that back up too. In addition, female house flies can lay around 500 eggs, which isn't something you want to think about possibly lying around your house. Flies can tread on, or touch, anything, and then touch anything afterwards; if a fly happens to go around dog poo in your garden it can then fly into your kitchen and spread germs, diseases and bacteria. So, all in all, I think I'm qualified in saying they're unhygienic!

There's an industry built on these pests, with people wanting something to quickly and effectively get rid of them. The most traditional and long-running fly-killer is a fly swatter. I personally would roll up a newspaper, take your aim and hope for the best. Buying a swatter however should be more practical, and the holes in it prevent the air hitting the fly first and warning them off.

Second in the list of traditional purchases for ridding your house of these flies would probably be a spray. I find these to be fairly effective, though they tend to have a strong and pungent smell.

Electronic gadgets seem to get much more advertising, especially in the summer. Most of these act as a zapper, electrically zapping and killing the fly once it's been enticed towards it. Other gadgets include strips, which I think just act more like Velcro, but getting strip full of flies stuck to it hanging somewhere doesn't seem very appealing. Whatever method you use, there will be the inevitable tidying up of fly carcasses.

There are more creative ways of getting rid of house flies if you don't mind being a fly murderer. For example, my father used to get an elastic band, make a cut in it and tie a knot in the end. He'd use this to flick a fly, and because practice made perfect, it was a pretty effective and cost-free method.

Overall, these would get 0 stars if that was an option. Scientists and biologists would challenge this by saying they have a purpose and that they're a necessary part within the environment, but they're definitely not necessary within my house. They're annoying and germ-ridden, with positive features when it comes to them being in your home.

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My experience with houseflies..............

I'm not often provoked to write a review, but, for some strange reason, I have spent the odd minute here or there pondering this curious little insect. Before I went to Switzerland about 8 years ago, I hadn't given them a thought. I was sat there, in the Alps, in the bar I was working in, freezing cold in the middle of January, when a fly landed on the table next to me.

I watched it, curious, before slowly moving my finger towards it. It did nothing. Puzzled, I moved even closer, again slowly, until I was a mere inch or so away. It did nothing. In fact, it took me to need to give it a little shove before it moved, and even then it seemed more like it was to get rid of the annoyance of my finger, moving only a few more inches along the table.I felt like it was looking at me as if to say, 'What? Can't I just sit here in peace?' I guess it just wanted to regurgitate on the table and then eat it up again! Part of me would like to think it's the cold weather affecting its temperament, but it may just be that British flies follow the stigma of being British and are just too highly strung for no apparent reason!

However, fast forward to now, and I find myself sitting here in my front room, with the little things buzzing frenetically from here to there, on occasion. We keep a clean enough house, so I'm sure there's no infestation of them, but we tend to accept it as a general way of life. There are the stories of flies carrying around diseases, but then I suppose there's just as much danger of picking something up from another source. For example, studies have suggested that pots of peanuts put out on a bar for customers can contain a number of different traces of urine from people not washing their hands after going to the toilet.

So, are flies friends or foes? Well, I suppose we can't completely ignore the fact that the feeding habits of flies are responsible in part for spreading things such as malaria and sleeping sickness, but they are also a key part of pollination and the help decompose organic matter. Eating habits seem revolting, but they are for a purpose. They vomit on solids, which reduces them into liquid so they can ingest it. Their reactions are many times quicker than ours are, which is why they seem to know what we're going to do before we do it. Evasion techniques are employed by them, much to the frustration of a good fly swatter or rolled up newspaper. It's not worth getting worked up over, I find, as they only tend to live for a couple of weeks or a month or so

In catering, there are special contraptions (expensive) which attract the flies to them and then zap them. This id to conform with hygiene standards, although it can't be too humane to the poor things, as often the zapping can last for a good 5 to 10 seconds. Methods in the home range from the aforementioned flyswatters and newspapers to my method, which is usually pester them until they head for an open window.

I don't like harming them at all, although I'll occasionally lash out with a hand if one hovers too close or keeps landing on me. I don't have anything against them, but I'd rather it didn't start vomiting on my leg, thanks very much! They may only be less than 1cm long, but somehow this makes them more of an annoyance.

Flies can lay eggs in anything that is moist and warm, mainly manure, but often dead bodies, and often they are used to determine times of death for humans and creatures alike. So, there's another useful side to them. I suppose, everything has its use, and everything in the circle of life, or the food chain, has its place and would cause problems if they weren't there any more. I don't tend to get annoyed at flies any more, and more recently, I try to watch them if one lands near me, curious as to how it goes about its day. Naturally, I don't want my house overrun with them, so will maintain hygiene standards at home, but the common housefly has certainly piqued my curiosity.

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roll on autumn & winter!

I've always been more of a winter sort of person & can really only tolerate the heat if I'm close to a swimming pool or near the sea so I'm afraid this isn't my favourite time of year (roll on autumn & winter lol!). Besides not enjoying hot/ humid temperatures the other thing I can't stand are the blooming flies.

These ugly, 6 -9mm, disease-spreading little creatures are so irritating when they buzz around that even one small grey/brown/blue-tinged fly can 'do your head in'. Luckily we don't get too many in our house & any that do manage to gain an entrance are quickly dealt with either by myself or our lovely manic-depressive cat.

When I saw Obama recently swatting the famous fly I was reminded of a Spanish artist I met years ago who had the knack of calmly catching flies by the dozen ( strange cognitive abilities?) in his large artistic hands...

Me? well I used to use the nearest newspaper or magazine (free) to swat them or else I'd reach for the fly/insect spray (around £1) which is not good for those with breathing problems nor for the environment. Recently I've used a tip I read in a magazine - all you need to do is soak a cotton wool ball in citronella oil & place in the appropriate area (very cheap). This, so far, has worked well & the citronella candles I bought have kept flies at bay in the garden.

My Granny used to live in the country & I well remember her green fly swat hanging on the pantry wall plus all the fresh food being covered in net & beaded covers to stop flies settling there. Hubby has those high-tech ultra-violet contraptions in his fast-food places (around £200 each) but as much as I dislike flies I still don't like the 'zap' noise it makes each time one is kami-kasered.

Some people use fly papers which attract these horrible flying things but they can prove ineffective after a while & you have to roll up the crunchy strips afterwards - ugh!

Does anyone actually like flies I wonder or are they just on our planet to annoy us?

summary~- ugly, annoying & make an irritating noise.- spread diseases.- seem to appear in most countries & surface usually at mealtimes, when you're relaxing or in bed.- luckily there are lots of ways of dealing with the wretched things!

"Life is just a chance to grow a soul." A. Powell Davies

I am winged Death!Messenger and Janitorof DecayInfectionDisease...Yet, I signal blessed ReleaseRapid TransformationProsperity in the face of AdversityPatienceand Persistence.

You chase me from your banquet,Yet I will feast and lingerupon the Beauty of your facelong after you cease."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~"The sick man is vexed with the flies on the wall."~ proverb

"Even the lion must defend himself against the flies."~proverb

"A spoonful of honey will catch more flies than a gallon of vinegar."~ Ben Franklin

Musca Domestica or the common Housefly is one of the least loved Creature Teachers, but it carries many valuable Totemic lessons. The Fly is actually a very potent Creature Teacher and well worthy of our respect. Insects are often discounted, discouraged, reviled, and looked down upon by our fellow Humans which I feel is a grave mistake. The Insect Nation is a populous and powerful force in the World and we would do much better to learn from them than scream "Eek! A Bug!" and squirt them with chemical death in a can.

Perhaps it is there nigh alien appearance and behavior, or often gross existence, which so repels us? Flies are not one of my favorite Creatures, and I've swatted more than a few in my time. However, I have also always respected them too. They are marvelously adept Survivors and do fulfill a vital role in the cycles of Life. If asked what is the most common animal found anywhere in the world? My first response would probably be "The Fly!"

Adult flies lay eggs in manure, garbage or decaying meat. They can also breed in wet flour/meal, moldy leaf-piles, or fresh, wet incinerated garbage, but not in scattered, dry garbage. Houseflies go through 4 stages of development: egg, larva, pupa and adult. Their entire life cycle can be completed in 7-10 days under ideal conditions. Adult females can lay as many as 2,700 eggs in 30 days! 350-900 eggs in 5 or 6 batches would be more average, and it takes only another 6 to 24 hours for eggs to hatch! The next phase, maggot, remains in the breeding area/"nest" for 4-10 days, feeding and growing.If their breeding environment is wet, larvae will climb to the sides or surface to pupate.

New research published in the October issue of "Clinical Infectious Diseases" found that maggots are useful in treating deep wounds without increasing the risk of further infection. Maggots work because they eat dead tissue (debridement) within the wound, which can promote infection. This treatment, ancient and even as grotesque as it may seem, helps reduce the risk of infection after surgery. The larvae are even thought to secrete substances that fight infection! Who would have thought that Fly, so closely connected with Disease and plagues, could be a healing Totem?

"Dense swarms of flies poured into Pharaoh's palace and into the houses of his officials, and throughout Egypt the land was ruined by the flies." ~Bible: Exodus 8:24

Larva have been known to crawl as much as 150' from the nest before pupating! . There have been cases of the larva crawling a distance of 150 ft. from the breeding source in order to pupate, and pupal state only lasts 3-6 days. Adult females can lay eggs 22 days after emerging and will continue to lay their own eggs for about a month. As adults, Flies live 30-60 days during the warmest part of the year. In colder areas, flies may live indoors for several months, and recent indoor studies suggest that flies may continue to breed all year in low numbers, wintering over in places like incinerator rooms and unsanitary restaurants.

As many as 12 generations can be born in a single summer! When Fly catches your attention, it often speaks of rapid transformation; an emerging influence that will most likely last about two weeks. It is important to remember that Flies seldom travel more than 30 miles from their breeding site, and Fly transformations in our lives might take up to a month to complete their cycle.

Although there are many varieties of biting flies, Houseflies do not bite. They have a spongy tube-like mouth, and must first regurgitate their saliva onto food to soften it up. Once liquid, they sponge it up. Housefly with her messy sponge, blood-sucking varieties like Robber flies or Black flies, or even the more gruesome types like Screw-worm fly all pose serious health risks for people, and our Animal cousins. For a start, Cockroaches are more sanitary in their lifestyles by comparison! More than 100 pathogens have been carried by flies alone. Diseases like malaria, typhoid, anthrax,cholera, tuberculosis and many more common varieties like simple stomach flu, have been transmitted by Fly and their near relations, Mosquitoes.

I have found that these pesky Teachers will even appear to warn you of some way in which you are endangering your own life. Infecting yourself with someone else's destructive influence, and succumbing to the disease of societal apathy are two very common examples. Flies have been used to represent: malice, lies, spite, curses, gossip, excuses, blame and hate. One of the many "creepy crawlies", Flies serve as a reminder to speak as we live for we reap what we sow.

"Slanders are like flies, that pass all over a man's good parts to light on his sores." ~ Unknown

"A closed mouth catches no flies."~ Proverb

"Do not use a hatchet to remove a fly from your friend's forehead." ~ Chinese prover

The road to Hell is paved with good intentions, and Flies (like worms, rodents, amphibians, and a troup of unpleasant insects) have been used in art and literature to represent the thoughts, good or bad, that feed us. In the tale collected by the Brothers Grimm, "Mother Hulda", two daughters follow the same strange road down a well. The kind virtuous step-daughter completes all three tasks set before her and, in one version, comes home with the ability to produce gold, pearls and precious gems whenever she speaks. The widow's own daughter, ugly selfish and lazy, whom she had spoiled comes home dropping snakes, frogs, and all manner of creepy crawlies as Mother Hulda's reward for her behavior.

Perhaps if she had improved her attitude, she would have shown that she finally understood that our words and actions feed the World we create around us. In removing the bread from untended ovens, unburdening a groaning apple tree and faithfully tending Mother Hulda's housework are powerful lessons on Duty, Interconnectedness, Justice, and Karma. This "faerie lesson" has been repeated in many tales the world over. Flies can be delivers of Hard Truths, but they aren't always bearing bad news.

"The image and name of the humpbacked flute player, Kokopelli appear on everything from jewelry and t-shirts to nature trails and string quartets. Malotki finds that the figure's popularity developed through cultural misunderstandings and linguistic corruptions that have blended and confused several elements: a prehistoric rock motif from the Four Corners area, the contemporary icon based on this rock art, the Hopi kachina, Kookopolo, modeled on the robber fly, who has a hump and is associated with fertility but never carries a flute; a maahu, the cicada, whose flute playing warms the earth and ripens crops. In addition to discussing these ethnographic elements, the author presents six Hopi oral tales that demonstrate the contrast between the traditional material and today's ubiquitous mythical flute player of the Southwest." ~ Science magazine

I found this connection to the Trickster, Kokopelli, to be quite intriguing. This figure is over 2000 years old, a long time in human perspective. Carrying his sack of plenty and mischief wherever he roams, Kokopelli is much admired as a cheerful Evoker of Fertility and Abundance. Fly is seldom greeted with this kind of enthusiasm though! Here is a great little link with a lovely drawing of Kokopelli http://members.aol.com/RSRICHMOND/kokopelli.html

"Patience, persistence and perspiration make an unbeatable combination for success." ~ Napoleon

"Never give in! Never give in! Never, never, never. Never -- in anything great or small, large or petty -- never give in except to convictions of honor and good sense." ~ Winston Churchill

"If you're going through hell, keep going." ~ Winston Churchill

Flies can also symbolize Abundance/Prosperity especially in the face of adversity! Persistence, thriving on chaos, and turning a tragedy into a triumph are all Fly messages. The "Golden Fly of Valor" or the "Order of the Golden Fly" was an Ancient Egyptian medal of honor bestowed by Pharaohs for acts of Valor, Excellence or overwhelming achievement. More often than not, Fly is pestering me as I toil up the hills of my life's path with my cart in tow. It is an effort to hear his, "Keep pushing! don't give up! Almost there!" encouragement, when all I want to do is stop my progress long enough to wave his dirty presence away from my face! It takes Balance and Patience to transcend this almost Physical need, allow the Fly to simply be, and maintain my chosen course. Flies are very good at goading us, but what might we achieve if we truly focused and directed well the energy that Fly goads us into releasing? Hmmm, an interesting question!

"I am that gadfly which God has attached to the state, and all day long and in all places, am always fastening upon you, arousing and persuading and reproaching you. You will not easily find another like me, and therefore I would advise you to spare me." ~Socrates

"Laws are like cobwebs where the small flies are caught and the big ones break through."~proverb

"Scriptures cannot transcend reason and truth. They are intended to purify reason and illuminate truth. Every formula of every religion has, in this age of reason, to submit to the test of reason and universal justice if it is to ask for universal assent. Error can claim no exemption even if it can be supported by the scriptures of the world."~Gandhi

There are over 120,000 species of fly. They are great opportunists, master transformers, and survivors. The best we exhibit of Fly would be triumph over adversity, prosperity, abundance, rapid change, necessary growth, mindful living. The worst might be opportunistic bottom-feeders of society, those who encourage chaos, decay and death because they feed off of it. Destructive or constructive, much of Fly is how you look at it, how you approach these things in your own life.

Flies are everywhere though, and an important food for many other species. These evoke-rs of rapid change feed fish from minnow to salmon, spiders, frogs, toads and other amphibians, bats, birds from sparrows to turkeys, snakes, lizards, other insects like dragonfly and preying mantis, certain plants like flytraps and sun-dew. All of which may feed larger things in their own turn. Flies are on this Wheel along with the rest of us, and have their purpose.

"Flies on the wall" are privy to secrets un-guessed. Our woes might multiply like flies if we aren't careful, and the industry of the Bee is certainly more dependable than the audacity of Fly. However Fly can also speak to us of Healing, the release of a destructive aspect in our lives, or the ultimate Transformations of Life, Death and Rebirth that results in Immortality. This is one of those Teachers that often leads me to another Teacher, a bridge-maker between two lessons or periods in my life. As always it is important to look at balancing energies too.

I found this frightening article on http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn6366.html in which scientists are making fly-eating "ecobots" as part of a "release and forget" program! I dare not guess what other "helpful" robots these people have come up with, as I would not wish to see a World deprived of this wise and necessary Teacher, however annoying or gross. While I am all for keeping my home environment as reasonably free of these disease-carrying Critters, I am also in no hurry to eliminate the species. How does this Teacher appear in your life?

Better a handful of bees than a basket full of flies. ~ Moroccan proverb

"Flies and priests can enter any house." ~Russian proverb

"The biting fly gets nothing by alighting on the back of the tortoise." ~African proverb

" Time flies like an arrow, fruit flies like a banana." ~ Groucho Marx